How do you get your ideal customers to test your product? You ask them! But founders need to realize they are asking for way more than a siloed product trial. Renae Farough, co-founder and CEO of AI-powered sales tool Kicker, got a lot of engaged beta testers—all of whom still use the product today. Speaking with SAAS NORTH, Renae explained how she structured her ask for the best chance of getting a “yes.”

Growth experiments need to deliver a potential outcome and give you data to both understand what happened and inform next steps. This is something April Hicke lives and breathes, as co-founder and Chief Growth Officer at Toast, a career and mentorship platform for women in tech. Speaking with SAAS NORTH, April explained her approach to growth experiments within a social enterprise.

You need traction to fundraise… but you need resources to invest in getting traction. This is a classic parallel dependency problem. It’s also a challenge Mehrsa Raeiszadeh, co-founder of online car marketplace MintList, found a way to overcome, fundraising over $1 million for her startup before writing a single line of code. Speaking with SAAS NORTH, Mehrsa explained her three-step process for overcoming parallel dependencies.

Product-led growth is the strategy behind many unicorn startups—it can also help steer away from becoming a “feature factory” mired in custom requests. Partho Ghosh, now the VP of Product at Uberall, has been a tech product leader for over a decade and seen many teams tease the cliff edge. Speaking with SAAS NORTH, Partho shared a few tips on how you can avoid this same fate.

One of the earliest employees at Uber, Andre Charoo saw firsthand what it takes to build a global tech powerhouse. Now, as General Partner of Maple VC, Andre invests in Canadian founders building the next generation of companies. Speaking with SAAS NORTH, Andre shared more about his principle of “durability” and how to create stronger startups.

Disco counts some of the world’s largest upskilling programs and startup accelerators as customers of its social learning platform. Speaking with SAAS NORTH, Disco Founder and Co-CEO Candice Faktor explained more about the company’s growth journey.

Raising a Seed round is an exciting time because an investor is taking a bet on you. But it’s also a time for maturity and evolution. Janet Bannister, founder and Managing Partner of Staircase Ventures, has seen around this corner many times as an investor for over a decade. Speaking with SAAS NORTH, Janet explained the four things founders will need to put in place immediately after raising a Seed round.

Evolving from a scrappy bootstrapped startup to a VC-funded business requires a lot of change. Kaylee Lieffers, founder of private labelling beauty SaaS platform Blanka, knows this well after raising a $2.7 million Seed round in 2023. Speaking with SAAS NORTH, Kaylee shared three key ways the business has matured since the raise.

Growing with marketing is something every founder will tell you they want, but few actually accomplish. Shiv Narayanan is on a mission to change this with his company How to SaaS. Speaking with SAAS NORTH, Shiv shared his framework for how he helps companies scale revenues with marketing.